Apr 4, 2014

If you’re thinking that the new Start menu that Microsoft unveiled today at the BUILD 2014 developer conference looks really awesome, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but it turns out that the company is planning a completely different design for the final version of the feature.

Microsoft said at BUILD that the Start menu would come back at some point and even though no specifics have been provided, it’s believed that Windows 8.1 Update 2 or Windows 9 could be the OS versions that could feature such an option. Many praised Microsoft for the design of the new Start menu, but we’re hearing that what we got to see at BUILD was just a mockup and the company is actually planning a much simpler design.

The existing version of the Start menu mixes the Start screen and the traditional menu options available in Windows 7, offering a pretty eye-candy tool that allows you not only toaccess your favorite desktop and Metro apps, but also reboot or shut down your computer with ease. If Microsoft indeed decides to go for a different design, nobody should actually be surprised, as rumors about a very simple Start menu have been swirling around for a while. Rumor has it that Microsoft is internally calling the new Start menu “mini-Start” and it’s pretty clear that the actual design isn’t quite matching such a designation.

The Start menu mixes traditional and modern elementsImage credits to Microsoft